Trenchbot-Robotic Trencher

A New Innovative look at trenching.

This trencher was developed by the University of Minnesota Mechanical and Electrical Engineering Departments in conjunction with the Trench’N Edge Trencher, a Minnesota based trencher manufacturer.

The unit was part of the University's Senior Design Course which required the undergraduate students to design, procure, program and test their theories to make the potential product work. The company and students were awarded a US Patent for their work - "Automatically Steerable Trencher". The trenchbot is designed to be steerable via hand held remote or by downloading a computer aided design (CAD). The hand held remote allows the operator full freehand steering via wireless signal.

The CAD design allows a program to be downloaded directly to the central processing unit onboard the trencher and steering is done by the computer to trace out the intended design. The unit requires input from a global positioning system (GPS) or a local positioning system (LPS). The trenchbot would be used to install irrigation systems, cut designs for corporate logos on ball fields and golf courses, install fiber optic cable and cut the designs for formal gardens.